Field of the Art
The disclosure relates to the field of dynamic pricing, and more particularly to the field of behavior-based pricing.
Discussion of the State of the Art
The emergence of large-scale online gaming communities, and the more recent arrival of mobile gaming as a major market, have presented dramatic opportunities for merchants. Users of online and mobile games have shown a willingness to make in-app (or in-game) purchases, generally of virtual goods (e.g., points, game items, game capabilities, etc.), and provide vendors with a rich variety of behavior data. In such a data rich, behaviorally complex environment, pricing becomes a very complex art. In the art, few tools are available to facilitate pricing of in-app or in-game items, and most such pricing is done manually and in an ad hoc fashion. A great deal of “tribal knowledge” rules in this area, with thumbrules and ideas that may work in the physical commerce world of bricks-and-mortar retailers are assumed to be valid in the online and mobile gaming worlds (and similar areas, such as online gambling, online education, digital media, and the like).
What is clearly needed is a system that brings science to the world of pricing in online environments, and that enables highly automated, adaptive, dynamic pricing of in-game, in-app, or equivalent items.